The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1887-01-07
POET WHITTIER AT HOME.
Simple Surroundings of the Quaker Bart


Unlike the homes Of his compecrS in
American literature IonCfollow, Em-
cr-1n, and Lowell. who lived among
books and pictures and memorials of
follow vorEor- i'm many lands. there Is
nothing i'm Whi'fier.= house tn suggest
the poet and the man OF lrisrS. The
small par. n into which tine visitor
is shown j. furnished with the drearv and
uriu c0mmOuplacen-- Of horsrhuir up
hOlsterv and the Ol!-la-hIDUcd rpuveu-
tiOuHl ornaments under glass shades. II
might be a DiSSetiu- ministers front
room in some provincial English town
like Lcicp-frr OF northampton, not Yet
reached 10y the iconoulasm of modern
H.-tlotici-In
But lIr. Whittier's kindly greeting Of
90 How do thee DOE I'm glad ID -,e
thee" di-pcl- all surprise, 10y recalling
the fact that me Is not ouly a N"w
Euglauirr which means simple living
from ncccS-it- hIt also a Quaker, which
means simple living from choice coin
ciIcurc sufficient TO explain even an as
cctici-m in which horsehair should play
"a much more obtru~iyo part.
MI. Whittior's study is a small square
room at the back of the house, heated by
an iron stove. and furnished even more
simply than the other rooms.
On one side of the study is a bookcase
containing some scores OF boOks-Old
ones: and on the other a small desk, at
which the poet docs all his writing. My
letters average twenty-five and thirty
day" ho says. land when I'm sick they
accumulate. and then when ] -"' wcl,
l mako myself SECS, HEGju trying jp catch
up with my answers To them - too
many If is TO Ice feared, being requests
for autogr Di.s.
Mr.. Whittier speaks. as he does every
thing else e.. the Ncw England fashion.
familiarlv even rarrlr-Sly. with "a fine
I democratic indifference to- clegaucies
OF pronunciation and finished periods.
His poetry has not been written at
any regular -imes. partly because Hc has
suiTrrrE sra.f pains iu the head. which
forced hil ID urit. when hc could and
not vvFen he syauis, and partly because
SO much OF his verse has been directly
/ inspired ly current events. and sent out.
almost direct from his pen, to cheer
the friends OF freedom or 10 check her
J enemies.
.' think I was born with a headache,
/ he saws: and since the Office OF the anti
! slavery paper in Philadelphia, of which
/ he was editor was attacked by q mob
and burned. he has only been free from
pain AZ intervals.
The poem called e. IchabOd 4" which
i should always be remembered with
/ Broyufng'~ b. Lost Leader. is perhaps the
! best example OF how Mr. Nmttiers best
poetry has sprung straight from his sym
/ pathv With the great reforms and reform
/ Crs OF his time.
/ on March Z. 1850. Daniel Webster.
I representing Massachusetts in the Senate
made q speech ON the slavery question
/ i'm which 20 Lite siuia.cmcnt and iutcns,
/ disappointment of his friends and the
arti-,lavrrv paTty he gave his assent tC
J tfrs Tu- .lNc slave bill-a measure au
thprisirg Southern slave owncr~ TO Seiz'
their ,'.c.,I..i slaves i'm any free state anC
ci.rr, ticm iIIcil To bondage.
.. 1T was 81 fearful blow 10 ia. say.
Ar whittier wholly unexpected
wrote Ic.uuajr the next morning. a.fr
. au entirely -leaTias night. IT ! ha'
waited "a couple o. months l don't think
/ sIuuii have written it,
q. / ;liu not sony l wrote il, ne adds
90 but I feel sur. If Webster had lives
. an the a-,-- s-. Pc of the war he wOul
nave lcen found as strong a ever on
the right lido. and I have said So 10
/ tho Lost Occasion It WIS his mister
able ambition to sit Iva the Hre-ia-uiia
-hair that betrayed him - Pan Nal
Gazette.